Tim, At 09:41 AM 9/17/2005, you wrote: >>I assume you restrict this principle to assertions of belief. I think you >>would not allow someone to perform heart surgery on you, based on nothing >>more than his assertion that he is a surgeon.<<
I don't see the connection between religious identity, which is, as you say, a matter of belief, and surgery, which is a procedure requiring a license. There is no license required for religious conviction. >>If self-identification stops at just that, that is if a person does not use >>self-identification to gain the privileges or responsibilities of membership >>in some organization, then I agree it's fine to simply take the person's word >>for who he is.<< Organizations, like individuals, can have their own self-definitions. >>If a person asserts that he is a Baha'i, and wants to attend Feast, then I >>personally don't need to ask for verification of his membership. But I think >>the Assembly should do that.<< A local spiritual assembly can determine whether someone is a member of the Baha'i Faith, and entitled to attend nineteen-day feasts, not whether she is a Baha'i - either in terms of personal identification or in `Abdu'l-Baha's sense of the word. Via moderna, Mark A. Foster . http://markfoster.net ... [a] word is ... a universal. - William of Ockham Structurization Tech: http://tech.structurization.com The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments thereto ("e-mail") is sent by the Johnson County Community College ("JCCC") and is intended to be confidential and for the use of only the individual or entity named above. The information may be protected by federal and state privacy and disclosures acts or other legal rules. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are notified that retention, dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify JCCC by email reply and immediately and permanently delete this e-mail message and any attachments thereto. Thank you. __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
